Maybe Tomorrow
by SymbolLuna
Summary: Every day Khota has visited his baby sister in the hospital as she fights for her life inside a death game, always with the hope that maybe tomorrow she will wake up... Oneshot. Complete.


He glanced up at the clock once more, willing it to be 5:30. He had to work over today which meant he wouldn't be able to see her at the usual time; it also meant they wouldn't have as long together as they normally did. Khota blinked his eyes and bounced his knees, tapping on everything within his reach. He wasn't on schedule and that made him nervous. He attempted to focus on his work for the rest of the day but it was impossible. On the second it became 5:30, he was practically out the door.

The hospital wasn't far, but since he was already so behind, Khota decided on taking the bus. It was a short, bumpy trip with only a few stops. Everyone at the hospital looked at him. They knew why he was here. It was why so many people were here.

He stopped by the flower stall in the lobby to purchase a bouquet of blue carnations. He bought her new flowers every week. While he knew it was utterly ridiculous, there was a part of him that wanted to believe there was a part of her that could still perceive the real world. After… "it" happened, they explained how the gear worked, how it was so in sync with brain that there was no way she could still recognize any outside stimuli. But he rejected that. Not because he believe it was untrue, but because he needed some sort of comfort. It was a selfish notion, but he didn't much care.

Khota knocked as he entered room 236. There was no answer, as always. It was a private room. Or, at least, it was now. It always took him aback to see her, lying there comatose with that helmet permanently strapped to her head. Her machines beeped and liquids dripped through small tubes into her veins. They were all that was keeping her alive for the past fifteen months. On this end, anyway. He knew she had to be fighting in… _there_. In some other universe far away from this one.

"Sorry I'm late, Amaya," he told her as he swapped out last week's red tulips for this week's blue carnations. "I got stuck at the office, I hope you don't mind." He paused as if waiting for a response that never came. "Do you like these? I thought maybe you would," he pressed his nose to their soft petals and sniffed, "they smell good," he informed her. "Here," he plucked one out of the vase and held it under her nose for a few seconds. "Good, huh?" Khota placed the flower back amongst its fellow floral and took his regular seat by the bedside.

"I brought you a new book today. I think you're really going to like it. It's the latest installment of that series you really like. You know the one with the dragons and stuff? You know it's not really my thing, but I figured you'd want to hear it." Ever since they were little Amaya had always loved her fantasy worlds full of dragons and knights and monsters. They would even go on adventures in their own backyard, taking on deep dark dungeons with nothing but their sword-sticks and bucket helmets. Eventually, though, Khota had grown out of those worlds. He became too "adult" for monsters and dragons and knights. He began to think in numbers and algorithms and the magic that he once believed in faded slowly until it disappeared like that altogether.

It was never that way for Amaya. She continued believing in dragons and knights and monsters. The magic never faded and anyone who met her could feel it radiating inside her. Hopes and dreams of daring adventure. But when their parents died, it went from love to obsession. She retreated further and further into her fantasy worlds so she didn't have to face the real one. Khota had tried to reach her so many times, but it was as if she had been lost. He got so angry with her. So angry. He yelled and screamed and tried to force her to face it, but it was to no avail. And only then was it, as he sat in the hospital, watching his baby sister lay near lifeless while machines barely kept her alive, did his guilt force _him_ to face it. To face the fact that if he hadn't driven her further into her seclusion that she would have never felt the need to escape him and put that stupid nerve gear on and play that stupid game

Khota tried to imagine what she was doing at that very moment. After it happened, he researched all he could on Sword Art Online and none of his findings alleviated his fears. He could still remember the day it happened. He had been at work and someone rushed in screaming to turn on the news. It had taken him some time to process what was going on.

"-by the use of nerve gear-"

_Amaya has nerve gear. _

"-Sword Art Online-"

_She stood in line for hours to buy that game._

"Anyone who attempts to remove the gear will immediately terminate the host. Do not remove the gear. I repeat, do not attempt to remove the gear. One hundred and seventy-two deaths have so far been confirmed. Do no attempt to remove the gear or interfere with the player. I repeat-"

It was as if the world faded then. He didn't know what to think. Everything just stopped. Then there were chills that slid down his spine and paranoia suddenly threw him back into the moment. Several other of his co-workers has already rushed out the door and he did the same. He paced her room, wanting so bad to wake her up, knowing that he couldn't. He screamed and broke things and sat with her until they came to transfer her to the hospital. All they had had in this world was each other. Khota swore to keep her safe and in the end, he failed. He let her escape into her virtual realities, to escape the grief and to escape him and in the end, it was the reason she lay there.

Khota took a deep breath, opened the book and began to read. He read for three hours before dog-earing the page. "I guess we'll have to see what happens to Toru and his troops tomorrow. What do you think? Think they'll surrender?" He paused. "Yeah, I don't think so either." Khota shut the book and took Amaya's hand. It was cold and frail. He sighed, "I'll be back tomorrow, okay? I promise. And I won't be late either." He kissed her hand and set it gently back onto the sheets before standing. "Wake up soon, sis," he pleaded before going out the door. He hated leaving. But visiting hours were over and that was all the time they had for today.

He shut the door and made his way down the hall. This floor was full of people who had loved ones in SAO. They all looked just as exhausted as he must have seemed, yet they still passed sympathetic looks to each other that all said, "maybe tomorrow."

Khota almost made it to the elevator when a loud screech came over the intercom. Everyone stopped and looked around, wide eyed. "Code blue, I repeat Code Blue," you could feel the stillness as everyone held their breath. They all knew what Code Blue meant. "Code Blue, 236, Code Blue, 236." Everyone let out a sigh of relief only to be immediately followed by guilt. It wasn't their room, but it was someone else's. It wasn't-

"236"

236. 236. 236. 236. 236. Code Blue. 236. Code Blue.

Khota dropped his bag and ran back down the hall. He burst through the door only to be pushed back by a nurse, "sir, I need you to-"

"Is she awake? Is she awake?" The nurse tried to push him out of the room but he moved past her, "Amaya!" He made it to the other side of the curtain where the doctor was shouting something at the nurses, but it was all lost over the sound of the frantic beeping of her heart monitor. It was so fast. _So fast._ What could possibly be happening to her in there?

"Stabilize her!"

"We can't!"

"TRY!"

The medical staff was buzzing all around, trying to help her, but all Khota could do was watch. She was finally waking up.

But then, it all stopped. They stopped buzzing, stopped shouting. But her heart still raced. One final frantic beep and then… it stopped. It didn't beep. There was just one, loud, piercing, continuous note that flooded the room.

"Is…is she…is she going to wake up now?" Khota asked, but the doctors gave no reply, they simply stepped back as he got closer. "Amaya? Amaya?" he shook her gently, "Amaya, open your eyes. Open your eyes Amaya." He couldn't breathe. His chest heaved and his vision became too watery. "DAMMIT AMAYA OPEN YOUR EYES! AMAYA! AMAY PLEASE! WAKE UP! WAKE UP, WAKE UP, WAKE UP!" He shook her violently and the helmet slid off of her head.

Khota collapsed into sobs, hugging the frail body of his beloved baby sister close. He wailed. He wailed and screamed as the staff just stood there. His cries poured into the halls, his wailing terrifying and inhuman. It bounced off the walls and into the ears of everyone plagued by the game of death, echoing the one thought they all shared as the rest of the world was silenced.

_"Maybe tomorrow…" _


End file.
